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Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Extended Edition coming to Blu-Ray

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So I just found out that an official date has been announced. Does anybody know whether they're gonna be the same poor transfers like the theatrical Blu-Rays or if they made new transfers for this release?

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Oh, I just found the answer myself:

Each movie is spread across two Blu-ray discs and has a 6.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack, whileFellowship of the Ring has been treated to a remastering from the original 2K digital files.

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it seems like they took their time on this release. been waiting forever. i own the extended dvd's and i have never seen them because i am waiting for these. i  watched the theater release bd's and yeah it was a really weak transfer. here's to hoping! p.s. sucks that they had to split them over 2 discs but that does not matter to us at ot.com now does it. mmuewuhhahhahahha.

believe in the ball and throw yourself!

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Actually it seems that TTT and ROTK will use the same master, which is OK because it was only FOTR that had a crappy transfer with tons of DVNR applied and that will get a new master derived from the 2K DIP, which is probably the best quality copy there is short of the o-neg, but that doesn't have CGI and colour timing applied to it.

And the films being split over two discs is actually great, it means the highest quality possible and switching discs doesn't bother me, as I like to make a cigarette break half way through a really long movie like this anyway ;-)

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They're also releasing all of the EEs to theaters. I got to see the first two (in a row, before watching RotK on opening night), should prove interesting.

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Harmy said:

And the films being split over two discs is actually great, it means the highest quality possible and switching discs doesn't bother me, as I like to make a cigarette break half way through a really long movie like this anyway ;-)

Now see...this is where I have to differ, lol.  This is yet another reason why I'm disappointed with this whole Blu-ray format.

On top of too many high def transfers not looking as nice as their DVD predecessors due to overly-processed DVNR and altered re-colouration, I now find that certain movies won't even be on a single disc this time around!

I prefer each of the 'extended' LOTR cuts, and was really looking forward to having the option of an uninterrupted viewing of each one if I wished to (bladder allowing), thanks to this format.  Or so I thought at the time...

Sure these movies are long, but I'd hoped that Blu-rays would now give everyone the option of just 'pausing' them at any point, if they decided to take a 'toilet break' or whatever...seeing as they'd be on ONE disc.

I took it for granted that Blu-rays would be able to handle lengthy movies without splitting them, so I'm sorry to see that this latest format still doesn't seem to be able to handle high quality presentation without splitting these movies apart with a break in-between.  So like the original DVD versions of these longer versions, the upcoming Blu-rays of these are effictively going to be the equivelent of the old hated 'flipper' discs as far as I'm concerned...with an 'enforced intermission' half-way through...and I might as well stick to my DVD versions and save myself a few quid.

...and I don't even smoke anymore! :(

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I side with Harmy on this issue.

Plus, I defy anyone with a toddler and a baby to stay up long enough to watch the entire movie in one sitting ;-)

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Films this length can certainly fit on a BD-50.  Studios can't win really.  If they put the films on one disc, some people complain about the bitrate, and if they split them onto separate discs, some people complain about having to change the discs.  Long films were often split onto two discs for DVD too though, so I don't think this is a DVD vs. BD issue.

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Well, it is in the sense that BD is no better in this aspect, but like I said, I don't mind and one has to realize that the EEs of LOTR are indeed the lenght of two regular movies.

 

Just out of interest (as it definitely doesn't concern my country :-( ) does anyone know if the theatrical release of the EE is digital only or if they made new prints for it? (They would have to make new prints since it's the EE). 

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Chewtobacca said:

Films this length can certainly fit on a BD-50.  Studios can't win really.  If they put the films on one disc, some people complain about the bitrate, and if they split them onto separate discs, some people complain about having to change the discs.

Hmmm.  I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the bastards are planning on yet ANOTHER double dip of these one day...on a single disc each...before they progress onto the eventual 'converted' 3D Blu-rays eventually.  Which will probably be split in two too... ;)

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Harmy said:

Well, it is in the sense that BD is no better in this aspect

I actually think long films do compress to fit on a BD-50 somewhat better than they do onto a DVD-9, so BD is an overall improvement in this respect, but in my opinion it's perceived concerns over PQ because of runtime that make studios split films onto two discs.  It's not really the format.  Personally, I don't have strong feelings either way whenever this issue comes up.

ImperialFighter said:

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the bastards are planning on yet ANOTHER double dip of these one day...on a single disc each...before they progress onto the eventual 'converted' 3D Blu-rays eventually. 

I hope for another dip too, because I prefer the theatrical cut of FOTR and wish I could have that on BD with the improved transfer.

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Yeah, I don't really care about the EE of FOTR and ROTK, I think both versions are equally good (and there were some additions I really didn't like in ROTK). The only EE I consider way way better than the theatrical version is TTT.

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there were some additions I really didn't like in ROTK

I agree.  The only addition I really miss when I watch the theatrical cut is Gandalf's monologue about the history of Gondor.  I though that was well done.

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I also liked some of the little ones, like where Sam and Frodo see the petrified trolls and the broken statue of the king or the one where they pretend to be orcs. What I didn't like was the additions to the scene where Aragorn and co. come to recruit the dead army or the death of Saruman scene (more for the way it was technically executed, than the content).

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So, does anyone know whether the limited theatrical release of the EEs is digital only or if they made some new prints?

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I'm guessing digital only. Which makes me wonder about what I saw in 03...

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Harmy said:

Yeah, I don't really care about the EE of FOTR and ROTK, I think both versions are equally good (and there were some additions I really didn't like in ROTK). The only EE I consider way way better than the theatrical version is TTT.

Really?  I thought the FOTR:EE was the best extension of the bunch.

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Harmy said:

 

Oh, I just found the answer myself:

Each movie is spread across two Blu-ray discs and has a 6.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack, whileFellowship of the Ring has been treated to a remastering from the original 2K digital files.

 

So they are all but admitting the bad transfer on fellowship BD disc, even though they had a couple highly respected review sites play apologist since they got the release from the studio early and for free.

That the HDTV broadcast 720P rip  floating around on the net had less  dvnr speaks volumes about their poor quality release.

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Yeah the HDTV rip (there was a 1080p one as well) was the same transfer (originally made for DVD) but they apparently added more DVNR for the BD. I'm glad they're making a new transfer and hopefully this time there won't be any DVNR applied.

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I'm kind of bummed they still had to use two discs for the BDs... But I'm glad the quality wasn't compromised, I was just hoping they would use bigger discs if they had to. I'm sure they will be on 100GB discs later.

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